JUNIOR CRICKET SPOTLIGHT- Eagley U11s v Egerton U11s

FORGET the Jackson Five, the Jackson two taught Eagley under-11s that victory was easy as ABC with a superb all-round batting and bowling performance.

The Egerton pair of Marcus Jackson and Will Jackson were the driving force from start to finish in this clinical and disciplined performance in the 138 run win.

The victory keeps Egerton in the hunt to chase down leaders Greenmount in the division and on the basis of this all-round fine display, you would not argue with them 'bringing back the good times' to the club.

The foundations of the win were in the professional and economical fashion of their bowling with eight runs off the 11th over being the main highlight for Eagley when Callum Connor and Ethan Liddle were at the crease.

Egerton managed to frustrate the hosts with some great bowling, getting the right line and length to prevent Eagley’s batmen getting many runs.

The omens did not look good for the Dunscar side in the second over as they were up to 203 and Marcus Jackson whistled a few to Sam Wilde before clean-bowling Kernick with the last ball.

The pairing of Flood and Kernick tried to repair the damage in the next over but the re-introduction of Jackson harvested his second wicket with a carbon copy of his first taking Kernick.

The impressive thing about Egerton was all the bowlers putting a lot of pressure on the batsmen with Jack Hancock and Jack Winrow causing a few problems for Aaron Patel (three) and Harry Haslam (four).

Patel hit a nice shot down the ground but some hesitancy and lost wickets prevented them from adding more than a solitary run in the seventh over.

The next partnership of Liddle and Connor looked to fight back to make a game of it.

Eagley were up against it and things went from bad to worse with Lewis Rawstorne taking the wicket of Liddle to take the score to 198 after 10 overs.

With four overs left, Lancs girls ace Ella Smith and Oliver Tuck were looking good on 208 after 13 overs.

But Rawstorne coming back to the bowling fray brought down the stumps of Tuck.

Despite Egerton starting on 200, the under-11s game is such that things can change at any point until the final ball with wickets taking runs off the score.

Eagley bowled well to take the early wicket of Wilde in the first over off the bowling of Smith.

They continued their good start with Wilde caught at midwicket by Liddle off Connor which put Egerton down to 193 at the end of the second over.

Things were looking good but Singleton led the fight with a boundary and single to take it up to 199 after three.

Singleton’s 12 helped to bring the visitors to 206 and they never looked back from there.

Egerton started to show their class with Marcus Jackson (28) hitting one of the best shots with an edge for four.

Winrow (10) bagged a boundary to mid-wicket before Jackson grabbed a few singles and then wielded the bat with ferocity as Egerton scored 23 in the sixth over – 22 for Jackson and one for Winrow.

They were cruising by the time Hancock and Rawstorne came to the crease and they played with fluency as all-rounder Hancock got 27 and Rawstorne added nine to put Egerton on 279.

It was a frustrating time for the Eagley bowlers as several chances went amiss and some disappointing fielding saw the scoreboard creep up.

The last pairing of Cardon Finch and Marcus Jackson put the icing on the cake by adding 55 runs to the scoreboard even though there was some consolation with Smith taking the wicket of Finch .

On the bowling side, Smith showed great spirit and heart to turn the game around and Connor took a wicket too.